Virar police begin investigating 55 illegal buildings after major real estate scam expose

The Virar police have sought the names and locations of the allegedly illegal buildings referred to in 55 files seized from an accused who was arrested in connection with a recently busted real-estate racket. The scamsters purportedly used fabricated documents to register construction projects with the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA).

The buildings in the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) region will be scrutinised again by various authorities to ascertain whether the documents presented by the accused were obtained by using forged signatures of the Thane and Palghar district collectors and VVCMC town-planners. “We will book the builders if we find this is true,” said Rajendra Kamble, senior police inspector of Virar police station.

All the concerned authorities such as MMRDA, CIDCO, the tehsildar of Virar and revenue officers from Palghar and Thane have been asked to immediately verify the certificates. In June, the Virar police had sent another list of 40 other buildings to VVCMC to verify their legality. “We had received complaints that they were illegal,” said an officer from Virar police station.

Meanwhile, the VVCMC authorities claimed that in the past two years, several police stations had registered a number of FIRs in connection with over 600 structures the civic authorities suspect to be illegal. “The police have given us a list of the CC (commencement certificate) numbers of these buildings,” said Ramesh Manale, additional municipal commissioner of VVCMC. “We will verify the documents of all the buildings and their legal status. We will file FIRs if we find any building constructed on forged documents.”

Landowner Dilip Benvanshi (31), Machhindra Vhanmane (37), owner of Mayur Enterprises, Dilip Adkhale (40) of Phoenix Corporation, Prashant Patil (33), a partner in Rudransh Realtors, and stamp-maker Rajesh Naik, 54, were arrested on Monday by the police after an FIR was registered following a complaint lodged by Ganesh Patil, the in-charge assistant commissioner of Ward C, Chandansar, about two buildings, Rudransh A and Rudransh B, constructed in the area.The arrest of one gang member in July led to the arrest of the other four on Saturday.

The construction of buildings, as explained by police officers, began four years back. At least 55 buildings were constructed in Vasai-Virar and flats sold to around 3,500 families, with fake documents. The accused converted agricultural land to non-agricultural, hired agents and specifically targeted lower middle class families, with the lure of flats worth Rs 15lakh -Rs 20 lakh. The buyers also got PMO subsidy as well, at Rs 2.5 lakh, reducing the total cost of the flat. Using fake documents they were given RERA approval which attracted more potential buyers. After the victims gave the down payments, they were taken to the government registration office where they even got the papers to their flats.